Speaker 1: For years, I went to a psychotherapist just three doors
Speaker 1: down from a funeral parlor. I gotta tell you, passing
Speaker 1: by mourners on my way to therapy really put me
Speaker 1: in the right headspace too, you know, think about what
Speaker 1: I wanted my own life to add up to. I
Speaker 1: highly recommend choosing a psychotherapist with an office next to
Speaker 1: a funeral parlor. Now let's travel back in time nearly
Speaker 1: a century ago to Manhattan's Upper West Side. It's a
Speaker 1: sweltering late summer day, and we're standing in front of
Speaker 1: the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel, then located at Broadway
Speaker 1: and sixty Street. Over the next hundred years, Campbell's will
Speaker 1: serve as the funeral home for legends from Judy Garland
Speaker 1: to Jackie Oh to the notorious b I. G. But
Speaker 1: they won't draw the crowds seen on Tuesday August when
Speaker 1: the sidewalks are overflowing with a crowd of some thirty
Speaker 1: thousand warners. They've all gathered here to catch a final
Speaker 1: glimpse of a fallen movie star. Arguably the first male
Speaker 1: sex symbol of the silver screen. He was in great
Speaker 1: physical shape, and you see those rippling muscles in his arms.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if you've ever seen the
Speaker 1: videos of him doing his workout while he's wearing pretty
Speaker 1: much just skivvy. Okay, I'll check those out. I haven't
Speaker 1: seen those. I need to see that he was labeled
Speaker 1: the Great Lover, or even more indelibly, the Latin Lover.
Speaker 1: He would hold you in his arms if you were
Speaker 1: a beautiful woman, and kiss you passionately and brutally. Can
Speaker 1: somebody turn down the thermostat and here is I'm feeling hot?
Speaker 1: No one burned up the screen like Rudolph Valentino, driving
Speaker 1: women across the planet wild in a way that no
Speaker 1: one had before him, enough to leave a permanent mark
Speaker 1: in the world that he suddenly left behind. At the
Speaker 1: tender age of thirty one. Along Broadway, a procession of
Speaker 1: dark cars carries Valentino's rose covered, bronze and silver coffin
Speaker 1: to the chapel. The crowd grows unruly, a scene recreated
Speaker 1: in the film Valentino. Rain is falling, but instead of
Speaker 1: cooling things off, the crowd explodes into a riot. The
Speaker 1: mourners become a mob, push punching, fighting their way to
Speaker 1: get into the funeral parlor. The surgeon. Crowd pushes a
Speaker 1: line of policemen, causing the windows of the chapel to shatter.
Speaker 1: Mounted police officers try to quell the riot, which lasts
Speaker 1: for hours. Over a hundred are hurt. An improvised emergency
Speaker 1: room is set up inside the funeral chapel, with the
Speaker 1: doctors and nurses ministering to the many injured. The streets
Speaker 1: are covered in debris. A young woman drenched from head
Speaker 1: to toe ambles in her stockinged feet, weeping. I must
Speaker 1: see him, I must see him. But how did we
Speaker 1: get here? How did Rudolph Valentino reach such dizzy heights?
Speaker 1: Why all of this howling, hysterical sorrow? And what exactly
Speaker 1: is a Latin lover? He's a handsome Latin with an accent.
Speaker 1: He's in the living in. Of course, there would be
Speaker 1: many rivals for valen Tino's Latin lover Crown. I was
Speaker 1: ruined by Raymond Navarrow. Raymond Navarro the movie star will
Speaker 1: tell their stories and talk to Latin lover Scion Lorenzo
Speaker 1: Lamas Dad was the original Latin dragon. He was the
Speaker 1: original lothario of fame and notoriety, and his romances are legendary.
Speaker 1: Did you tell me something, Fernando, you have a terrible reputation.
Speaker 1: Do you still have a lot of fooling around to do?
Speaker 1: And we'll tell you how the Latin Lover vanished from
Speaker 1: Hollywood just as suddenly as he had appeared. I'm in
Speaker 1: a night. No fine man is allowed to play a
Speaker 1: leading role, like if we have an operation of someone
Speaker 1: from CBS Sunday morning and I heart I'm Morocca and
Speaker 1: this is mobituaries this moment dolf Valentino, Ramon Navarro and
Speaker 1: a Tale of Two Lamas. October eighth, the Death of
Speaker 1: the Latin Lover. World War One ended in and its
Speaker 1: conclusion ushered in the beginning of the sexual Revolution. Wait
Speaker 1: a minute, the sexual revolution that happened in the nineteen sixties,
Speaker 1: didn't it well, There actually was an earlier sexual revolution
Speaker 1: in the nineteen twenties. Out of the devastation of World
Speaker 1: War One emerged a new American woman with a new
Speaker 1: sense of sexual freedom, a modern woman. Women had finally
Speaker 1: won the right to vote, and we're joining the workforce
Speaker 1: in unprecedented numbers. The Great War had made American women
Speaker 1: more aware of the world at large, and these women
Speaker 1: were going to the movies. Approximately eighty three percent of
Speaker 1: movie goers were women. Enter Rudolph Valentino, our first Latin
Speaker 1: lover of the silver screen. Valentino was born Rodolfo Pietro
Speaker 1: Filiberto Raphaele Googliemi on May six in the province of
Speaker 1: Toronto in southern Italy. What was the appeal of Valentino? Well,
Speaker 1: he was handsome, he was elegant. He was a dynamite dancer.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was a professional dancer before he became
Speaker 1: an actor. I'm talking to Emily wardis Lder, author of
Speaker 1: Dark Lover, The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino. Try
Speaker 1: to ignore the noise in the background. And if you've
Speaker 1: seen him dance on screen, he was so graceful and
Speaker 1: dynamic as a performer. Emily, are you sorry? Are you
Speaker 1: cooking there? My husband is getting ready for his lunch.
Speaker 1: What is he What is he making? Salad? Okay? Al right?
Speaker 1: Could he just be a little quieter with the tongs.
Speaker 1: The Italian economy collapsed after World War One, and Rodolfo
Speaker 1: emigrated alone to America, arriving at Ellis Island at the
Speaker 1: age of eighteen. He first made his living as what
Speaker 1: was known as a taxi dancer. He was doing that
Speaker 1: pretty much from the time he was right off the
Speaker 1: boat in New York. Taxi dancers worked in dance halls,
Speaker 1: charging patrons a dime for a dance, a profession immortalized
Speaker 1: by the Rogers and Hart song ten cents a dance,
Speaker 1: and was that His primary ambition was that sort of
Speaker 1: the end goal to be a dancer, not his empty
Speaker 1: at all. He wanted respect, but working as a taxi
Speaker 1: dancer was seen a sort of jigglo adjacent. That's not
Speaker 1: high prestige all that you need. Come on. At twenty three,
Speaker 1: Rodolpho headed to Hollywood and adopted the much more marquis
Speaker 1: friendly name Rudolph Valentino. He played bit parts in various
Speaker 1: B movies, often his Criminals and Low Lifes, until he
Speaker 1: was discovered by June Mathis, one of the most successful
Speaker 1: women in early Hollywood. She was a power in her
Speaker 1: own right. I think most people would be surprised at
Speaker 1: the power that several women had in Hollywood during the
Speaker 1: silent film era. Women were a force in the era
Speaker 1: of silent films. They only lost hour later, and they
Speaker 1: did of course. Matthis was a screenwriter and producer, ultimately
Speaker 1: being credited on more than one films, and she picked
Speaker 1: him out and she gets the credit for being the
Speaker 1: person who discovered law Valentino. Oh, if you're intrigued by
Speaker 1: unsung powerful women in Hollywood's earliest days, check out our
Speaker 1: season one episode Forgotten Forerunners, which features silent film trailblazer
Speaker 1: Lois Webber. Okay, so there are no taped interviews of
Speaker 1: June Mathis, but there's this ABC made for TV movie
Speaker 1: from five called The Legend of Valentino, and it stars
Speaker 1: the incomparable Suzanne Plachette as June Mathis. Here she is
Speaker 1: arguing with Metro Studio executives over whether or not to
Speaker 1: cast Valentino in her next big movie. Photographs like a foreigner.
Speaker 1: Foreigners have to play heavies. American women won't trust them.
Speaker 1: They trust American man read them, don't they? Who was
Speaker 1: talking about marriage? I'm talking about sex, Sam. This is
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty. It would just be through a world war.
Speaker 1: Women are wearing one piece bathing suits, they're drinking bathtub gin,
Speaker 1: they're dancing the black bottom. And the only thing that
Speaker 1: hasn't changed is the screen. I mean, we are still
Speaker 1: pretending it's sex was invented by Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Now,
Speaker 1: why can't we be closer to reality? June Mathis had
Speaker 1: seen Valentino dance. She knew he had it. I mean,
Speaker 1: women aboard their restless They're tired of being protected and
Speaker 1: American men are dull. Now, by the early nineteen twenties,
Speaker 1: Americans had been going to the movies for more than
Speaker 1: a decade, but the typical leading man of the day
Speaker 1: was square jawed all American, unassailably moral. Think that the
Speaker 1: swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks, very Protestant, hair parted, white shirt suit.
Speaker 1: We're talking menace here, We're talking a gentleman. A gentleman.
Speaker 1: Was he demonstrative with women? There wasn't much heat, but
Speaker 1: Douglas Fairbanks was certainly very exciting. Not as a lover
Speaker 1: on screen. It was an athlete, not such a good kisser.
Speaker 1: But for decades Italian immigrants had been smeared in newspapers
Speaker 1: as gangsters, which is also the only way they showed
Speaker 1: up in movies. The Emergency Quota Act codified this bigotry
Speaker 1: by drastically limiting the number of people coming in from
Speaker 1: southern and Eastern Europe, there was a special prejudice against
Speaker 1: Italian immigrants. They were just one step above being black
Speaker 1: in the eyes of filmmakers and society at large white audiences.
Speaker 1: But June math Is envisioned an alternative. Bear in mind
Speaker 1: this was a full century before me too. I mean,
Speaker 1: if we're going to buy a dream, we're gonna buy
Speaker 1: the one about the handsome farn who drags it into
Speaker 1: his bed against our will. You'd like that. I love
Speaker 1: that scene, and so would your wife. Mathis got her
Speaker 1: way and cast Valentino in her film The Four Horsemen
Speaker 1: of the Apocalypse, and one scene in that film came
Speaker 1: to define Valentino for his entire career. The tango scene. Well,
Speaker 1: it starts with menace, which used to be and maybe
Speaker 1: still is, considered sexy. Early on in the Silent film,
Speaker 1: Valentino's character Julio is drinking in a crowded, divy Argentine bar,
Speaker 1: wearing a gaucho outfit, wide flat brimmed hat with tassels
Speaker 1: and a chin strap, buttoned up blousy shirt. A man
Speaker 1: and woman are dancing a jaunty tango. Valentino's drives up
Speaker 1: and taps the man on the shoulder. Never removing his
Speaker 1: lit cigarette, he asks to cut in. Valentino exchanges a
Speaker 1: smile and wink with the saucy Senorita. The man, however, refuses.
Speaker 1: Valentino's eyes widened with fury. He then throws the man
Speaker 1: aside and beats him. Then he breaks in and grabs
Speaker 1: the woman quite brutally, and then tangles off with her.
Speaker 1: So there is Mannas about to knock you out if
Speaker 1: you don't hand over the woman. And that was sexy.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, okay, these movies have not aged well, but
Speaker 1: Valentino's on screen persona was an exotic fantasy that women
Speaker 1: of the era bought into in a big way. The
Speaker 1: famous tango scene only lasted a total of four minutes,
Speaker 1: but it had a seismic impact. Is this the scene
Speaker 1: that really makes him a superstar in my opinion? Yes,
Speaker 1: But the Sheik took over and became better known, and
Speaker 1: that was a real craze. Valentino's first leading man role
Speaker 1: came that same year in The Chic, the movie adaptation
Speaker 1: of the steamy, hugely popular romance novel The Chic, which
Speaker 1: was basically the Fifty Shades of Gray of its day.
Speaker 1: This was the racy debut of thirty nine year old
Speaker 1: British novelist E. M. Hull a k a Edith maud Hull.
Speaker 1: The book inspired a chart topping hit called The Chic
Speaker 1: of Araby. Crowds went absolutely wild for Valentino as a
Speaker 1: love struck but brutal Arab chic who melts the heart
Speaker 1: of a captive modern woman. Chic mania swept the world.
Speaker 1: Oh and I must see the house where Rudolph Valentino lived. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'll never forget him in the sheet. I'm that her love.
Speaker 1: It also inspired a string of chic rip off movies,
Speaker 1: and it continued to press the tension between sex and violence.
Speaker 1: That's an element in some fantasy romance attention that Valentino
Speaker 1: would exploit in roll after role. And yet now you
Speaker 1: also wrote about a vulnerable, wounded quality that Valentino had.
Speaker 1: He has that in life, and he has it on
Speaker 1: the screen too. Yes, I think it's about its own
Speaker 1: emotional availability and vulnerability. You could see it in his face.
Speaker 1: That softer side was an essential part of his appeal.
Speaker 1: He would kiss the back of women's hands, he would
Speaker 1: bow flourishes of chivalry that American women weren't used to
Speaker 1: seeing in American men, his courtesy, his focus, his intensity.
Speaker 1: He would make you feel like you were the only
Speaker 1: woman in the world while he was kissing you anyhow,
Speaker 1: and this gets to the heart of what made Valentino
Speaker 1: so different from the leading men who came before. He
Speaker 1: put the woman front and sent her very important. The
Speaker 1: woman is central. It's all about adoring the woman, and
Speaker 1: women adored him right back, sneaking onto trains, hiding in
Speaker 1: bathrooms just for a chance to get close to him.
Speaker 1: One Boston headline read ten girls mob World's greatest kisser.
Speaker 1: Women of all ages created the matinee idol is What
Speaker 1: is Bill doing back there? Is he pounding? Veal was pounding? Uh?
Speaker 1: Tell me the truth? Is all this talk about Valentino
Speaker 1: making him jealous? No, he wants his lunch, but out
Speaker 1: of the public eye. Rudy was unlucky in love and
Speaker 1: bad with money. He endured two unhappy marriages and made
Speaker 1: poor business decisions. Leapfrogging from studio to studio. Valentino burned
Speaker 1: bridges and lost allies and friends in the process, including
Speaker 1: his first champion. June Mathis newspaper soon took to mocking
Speaker 1: the star as Vassilino because of his slicked back hair. Now,
Speaker 1: we've talked plenty about how women reacted to Valentino. Indeed,
Speaker 1: Valentino was a man made by women. But how did
Speaker 1: most American men react to him with suspicion? Hey, he
Speaker 1: was a foreigner. He didn't have exactly white complexion. He
Speaker 1: had all of complexion, which made him suspect. And see
Speaker 1: the wise girl friend mother liked him too much, so
Speaker 1: that was a threat. Valentino knew that he was beautiful.
Speaker 1: He dressed to thrill. He wore jewelry spats over his shoes,
Speaker 1: lemon yellow gloves with his impeccably tailored suits. Think David
Speaker 1: Bowie meets Harry Styles. Enter the infamous pink powder puff attack.
Speaker 1: That was such a smear. That was a smear job,
Speaker 1: but it got a lot of press, the pink powder
Speaker 1: puff attack. They attacked his masculinity totally without basis. In July,
Speaker 1: in anonymous Chicago Tribune editorial alleged that the city's new
Speaker 1: Aragon ballroom had installed a pink powder puff vending machine
Speaker 1: in the men's washroom, encouraging men to powder their noses.
Speaker 1: And it's squarely blamed Valentino without saying it. The editorial
Speaker 1: accused Valentino of being gay. Valentino challenged the anonymous author,
Speaker 1: first to a duel of honor and then to a
Speaker 1: boxing match, but before anonymous could come forward it was
Speaker 1: too late. Complaining of terrible abdominal pains, Valentino was given
Speaker 1: an emergency double operation for acute appendicitis and perforated gastric ulcers.
Speaker 1: The resulting sepsis took his life. After a week that will,
Speaker 1: Valentino died at twelve ten pm on Monday August. This
Speaker 1: tribute song was written by Vernon Dolhart. Just ten days
Speaker 1: after Valentino perished. The Guardian newspaper wrote, no monarch or
Speaker 1: war hero ever aroused more sympathetic public interest anywhere than
Speaker 1: Valentino during the illness, which ended fatally. Today, the press
Speaker 1: was flooded with reports of fainting women and suicide attempts.
Speaker 1: Twenty seven year old actress Peggy Scott took her life
Speaker 1: in London by poison. Twenty year old Angelina Celestina, mother
Speaker 1: of two, took poison and shot herself in the bowery.
Speaker 1: She was rescued and briefly institutionalized. Valentino received two separate
Speaker 1: funerals the first in New York with its riots and mayhem.
Speaker 1: Then his body was transported cross country via railroad to California.
Speaker 1: At several stops, love struck fans lay down on the tracks,
Speaker 1: delaying the trains progress to Valentino's final resting place in Hollywood. Well,
Speaker 1: nobody in this country had seen anything like it since
Speaker 1: the death of Abraham Lincoln, though that is really something else,
Speaker 1: you know, when Lincoln does, his body was carried in
Speaker 1: a famous train ride, and people gathered along the tracks
Speaker 1: in morning and tribute. And the same thing happened when
Speaker 1: Valentino died. The more sensationalized reactions to Valentino's to death
Speaker 1: became part of the national consciousness for decades afterwards, as
Speaker 1: evidenced by this brief side in Billy Wilder's comedy Some
Speaker 1: Like It Hot. How about Roseberry Short She slashed the
Speaker 1: wrist when Valentino, Well, we might as well all slash
Speaker 1: our risk unless we round up two games. Valentino is
Speaker 1: buried next to June Mathis, who, out of compassion, allowed
Speaker 1: Valentino to be entuned in her crypt at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Speaker 1: His estate couldn't afford to bury him there. They rest
Speaker 1: side by side Valentine, but way up, there's on you story.
Speaker 1: Within three years of his death, silent movies were officially finished.
Speaker 1: Would Valentino have made it in talkies, Well, here's a
Speaker 1: rare recording of him singing let's have a quick listen
Speaker 1: and wonder what might have been. But it was the
Speaker 1: singing voice of our next Latin lover which would allow
Speaker 1: him to make the jump to talkies. Night. Ramon name
Speaker 1: Samaniego Jose Ramon Hill Samaniego was born on February six Inturango, Mexico.
Speaker 1: His large family was wealthy and influential and lost everything
Speaker 1: in the Mexican Revolution. Seventeen year old Jose Ramon moved
Speaker 1: to Los Angeles, where he supported his family by working
Speaker 1: as a bus boy, a nude model, and a movie extra.
Speaker 1: He dreamed of singing opera, and, just as Valentino had,
Speaker 1: Samanego simplified his name to Ramon Navarro, although it was
Speaker 1: much more frequently pronounced Ramon Navarro. Superstardom came with the
Speaker 1: silent version of Ben Her. Now, this was thirty four
Speaker 1: years before Charlton Heston's Panavision extravaganza Ben Her, I Tell
Speaker 1: You the day room falls, there will be a shout
Speaker 1: of freedom such as the world has never heard before.
Speaker 1: But the earlier version was just as epic, the most
Speaker 1: expensive movie of its time, and it was written by
Speaker 1: none other than June Mathis. Mathis desperately wanted Valentino for
Speaker 1: the title role, but Valentino was at the time on
Speaker 1: the ounce with the studio. Navarro got the lead. The
Speaker 1: world had a new Latin lover, the first Mexican actor
Speaker 1: to make it in Hollywood. Navarro could dance, and he
Speaker 1: could act. He was funny, and this was key to
Speaker 1: his success in talkies. He could sing, I should like
Speaker 1: to hear you sing. That's easy. I think I looked
Speaker 1: anywhere without any good. Here he is singing the pagan
Speaker 1: love song from the nine Polynesian romance The Pagan Nice.
Speaker 1: And here he is as a romantic and reckless Napoleonic
Speaker 1: French officer in Devil May Care. And here he is
Speaker 1: crooning alongside fledgling movie soprano and future star Jeanette McDonald
Speaker 1: in n GM's The Cat and the Fiddle. Okay, so
Speaker 1: maybe that pigeon like warbling is not to our current tastes,
Speaker 1: But save your bread crumbs. Navarro's operetta style of singing
Speaker 1: was all the rage at the time. I'm Navarro had
Speaker 1: only one accent for all of his speaking roles. Whether
Speaker 1: he was playing an Egyptian, Belgian or Austrian, he always
Speaker 1: spoke with his natural, lilting Mexican accent. Here he is
Speaker 1: as a Russian. Just go with it, wooing the world
Speaker 1: weary Swedish screen siren Greta Garbo in Mata Hari's a
Speaker 1: strange boy who loves you, William, I love you as
Speaker 1: when a door's sacred things. Let's sink of things. God, country,
Speaker 1: honor you now. Navarro was not the sex god that
Speaker 1: Valentino evoked on screen. He was short, with a smallish mouth,
Speaker 1: and while he was definitely athletic, he was also slightly pudgy.
Speaker 1: Navarro's seduction technique, even in the films where he played
Speaker 1: a cad, was playful, naughty, innocent, Oh you would go,
Speaker 1: that would do you little? In a word, Ramon Navarro
Speaker 1: was cute, a lovable, love struck scamp, and an uninhibited
Speaker 1: romantic with loads of charm. I lost my career today,
Speaker 1: but I don't care. I'm happy today. I found the
Speaker 1: most glorious girl in the whole world. Nothing about Navarro
Speaker 1: spoke of menace or danger. Today I found love. Ironically,
Speaker 1: Navarro reached his peak and popularity at a time when
Speaker 1: prejudice towards Mexican immigrants had become extremely common. Mexicans had
Speaker 1: been welcomed as cheap labor to the US, but at
Speaker 1: the same time they were resented, and Hollywood's depictions of
Speaker 1: handlebarred bandidos in westerns were at least partially to blame.
Speaker 1: Whether Valentino and Navarro were sensations because or in spite
Speaker 1: of being immigrants is hard to say, but the studios
Speaker 1: consciously avoided casting either of them as their native nationalities.
Speaker 1: To audiences, they were simply acceptably exotic celebrities. Now, until
Speaker 1: four Novarro was one of the world's biggest stars, one
Speaker 1: of the few to straddle silent films and talkies. Then
Speaker 1: two things happened. Hollywood turned toward more stoic, traditionally manly
Speaker 1: man like Clark Cable and Gary Cooper for its romantic
Speaker 1: male leads that was not Navarro. At the same time,
Speaker 1: the old fashioned operettas that had made Navarro so popular
Speaker 1: fell out of fashion. In favor of newer sounding musicals,
Speaker 1: led by the likes of fred As Stair. I'm longing
Speaker 1: to be in chains and that's with me. One final
Speaker 1: MGM musical, The Night Is Young, in cemented the end
Speaker 1: for Navarro with us and apple Struds. I've ordered apple
Speaker 1: Strudo without students. Love you listen. I happen to love
Speaker 1: both veener Schnitzel and apple Strudel, But this movie gave
Speaker 1: me indigestion. It tanked with both critics and audiences, and
Speaker 1: m GM fired Navarro. Navarro had had a good run,
Speaker 1: make that a great run. He lived comfortably over the
Speaker 1: next few decades, even helping to take care of his
Speaker 1: many siblings and their families, having smartly invested his money
Speaker 1: in real estate. Oh, I feel very fortunate because I
Speaker 1: know people that have certainly much more intelligence than I had,
Speaker 1: an intelligence and ability, and yet I'd be fortunate in
Speaker 1: the investing my money rightly. Ramon Navarro's legacy would likely
Speaker 1: be his very real early stardom if not for the
Speaker 1: way he died at the age of sixty nine. Navarro
Speaker 1: was murdered in his Hollywood home on October by two
Speaker 1: male hustlers. The details are lurid, and we're not going
Speaker 1: to get into them here, but the general circumstances of
Speaker 1: his death and the trial that followed revealed to the
Speaker 1: world what Hollywood insiders had long known. Navarro was gay.
Speaker 1: As a young star, he had refused to give into
Speaker 1: studio pressure to marry a woman. In his early days,
Speaker 1: he'd had a few relationships, but as he grew older,
Speaker 1: biographer Andre Suarez beliefs Navarro had become less self accepting
Speaker 1: and found it harder to reconcile his Catholic faith with
Speaker 1: his sexuality. He drank to excess, and he paid for sex.
Speaker 1: When he eventually lost his driver's license, navarro secretary would
Speaker 1: drive him to church. If Navarro noticed a handsome young
Speaker 1: man walking the sidewalk, he would quickly cross himself. At
Speaker 1: the trial of his murderers, the defense attorney victim blamed,
Speaker 1: saying contemptuously to the jury, back in the days of Valentino,
Speaker 1: this man who set female hearts of flutter was nothing
Speaker 1: but a queer. Navarro, he argued, had invited this upon himself.
Speaker 1: Sadly in that was a compelling argument. Neither murderer served
Speaker 1: more than nine years for this crime. Posthumously, Navarro's name
Speaker 1: fell further into disgrace thanks to Hollywood Babylon. Hollywood Babylon
Speaker 1: is a book by a man named Kenneth Anger, and
Speaker 1: that's pretty much where the facts end. It's attacking and
Speaker 1: tasteless compilation of scandals and hearsay about the very first
Speaker 1: movie stars, and it was a best seller. The most
Speaker 1: infamous edition in included gruesome graphic photos of celebrity deaths
Speaker 1: we its litany of lies. Hollywood Babylon ensured that Navarro's
Speaker 1: death would overshadow his life. When the fabulous MGM retrospectives
Speaker 1: That's Entertainment and its sequel were released in the nineteen seventies,
Speaker 1: they included dozens of clips from Hollywood's earliest musicals. Navarro
Speaker 1: was conspicuously absent at that time. It may have been
Speaker 1: impossible to honor him properly without invoking his recent troubling demise.
Speaker 1: And that's a big shame. Tears to remembering Ramon Navarro
Speaker 1: as he was in his Latin Lover Heyday with that
Speaker 1: wonderful warble up next, Lat Lover's invade television, just before
Speaker 1: their last big hurrah on the silver screen. You know,
Speaker 1: Ricky another Rudolph Valentino, Ricky Ricky ricking me. That's who
Speaker 1: the studio just had to go over and have my
Speaker 1: picture taken with Ricky Ricardo, whoever he is? Haven't you mad? You?
Speaker 1: He's a handsome Latin with an accent. He's the end
Speaker 1: the living en. By the nineteen fifties, the whole idea
Speaker 1: of the Latin lover had become something of a punch
Speaker 1: line on TV. Ricardo Alberto Fernando Ricardo, I love Lucy's
Speaker 1: Ricky Ricardo has played by Desi Arnaz, is hardly dangerous.
Speaker 1: This Latin lover was safely domesticated. What a dream of situation.
Speaker 1: And I bet you know a million girls? Where's your
Speaker 1: address book? I burned it. I hadn't been in this
Speaker 1: country very long, and Lucy said it was part of
Speaker 1: the American marriage ceremony. Over on the big screen. The
Speaker 1: Latin lover vehicles of the period were gloriously cheeseball. Here's
Speaker 1: Mexican Heartthrob Ricardo Montalban teaching some poor sap his own
Speaker 1: seduction technique. In Neptune's Daughter, you must say to her,
Speaker 1: why do I have to speak Spanish? Because it's a
Speaker 1: language of love? Women can resist it. Not surprisingly, Montaban
Speaker 1: didn't like being typecast, as he later recalled in a
Speaker 1: CBS interview, but I didn't know what it meant, you
Speaker 1: see Latin love it. I it meant a man, I
Speaker 1: guess I going into Hollywood with slick hair, Natalie dressed
Speaker 1: and kissing ladies hands, you know. And it was a caricature,
Speaker 1: so I I kind of resented it. There were vapid roles.
Speaker 1: Perhaps the most successful of the Latin lovers of this period,
Speaker 1: and one of the last, was dapper Debonair Fernando Lamas.
Speaker 1: Aren't you rather forgetting yourself? Maybe I always forget myself
Speaker 1: when I'm near a beautiful rule. Neither dangerous like Valentino
Speaker 1: nor boyish like Navarro, Lamas was instead a smooth operator.
Speaker 1: Come to my home tomorrow and I will show you
Speaker 1: the real Gord of California, the sweet smelling hay and plums,
Speaker 1: and the grapes, and the prod cattle and the bigs.
Speaker 1: Do you like pigs, lady? Normally that's a few. At
Speaker 1: the height of his popularity, Fernando married movie star and
Speaker 1: businesswoman are Lean Tall, a Minnesotan of Norwegian descent, and
Speaker 1: the couple were expecting a child when they spoke to
Speaker 1: Edward R. Murrow on person to person, have you picked
Speaker 1: a name for the baby and not? Not yet. We
Speaker 1: have in mind a couple of names. But he's not
Speaker 1: quite easy, isn't No. It's not easy to see both
Speaker 1: my father and for not to want a boy. So
Speaker 1: we've been concentrating only on boys names, right. You see,
Speaker 1: he's got to go with the name Lamas, and I
Speaker 1: don't think that, for example, Sam Lamas would really go
Speaker 1: out together. You know, they did not name their son Sam.
Speaker 1: As much as I was stereotyped as a jock, Dad
Speaker 1: was stereotyped as a Latin lover. That's actor and son
Speaker 1: of Fernando Lorenzo Lamas. And he told me it's good
Speaker 1: to be stereotyped and have steady work, then to not
Speaker 1: be stereotyped and go without having the phone ring for
Speaker 1: months at a time. Lorenzo would go on to have
Speaker 1: his own movie and TV career. I first came to
Speaker 1: know him for his work on the nighttime soap Falcon Crest.
Speaker 1: You created Falcon Crest in your own image, Grandmother, My
Speaker 1: mother and I are the way we are because of
Speaker 1: you and if I've turned against you, it's your own fault.
Speaker 1: You get out of my sight. I really think the
Speaker 1: Latin lover was introduced to the American audience to give
Speaker 1: people a chance to look at an emotional man, a
Speaker 1: man that is not afraid to show his feelings. Fernando
Speaker 1: Lamas was discovered in his native Argentina by an MGM
Speaker 1: talent scout. He was of a group of people like
Speaker 1: ss A Ramaron, Ricardo montal Bond that were brought to
Speaker 1: the studio system to play that kind of that spoiler,
Speaker 1: the Latin lover that comes into the storyline and kind
Speaker 1: of breaks up the couple, and they would play the
Speaker 1: continental swave, you know, sophisticated man about town. How many
Speaker 1: may have told you that you're the most beautiful girl
Speaker 1: they have ever seen. Fernando took to the Latin lover
Speaker 1: role on screen and off movie Star and Champions Swimmer.
Speaker 1: Esther Williams would become his fourth wife. She later recalled
Speaker 1: the first time they met, tell me something, Fernando, you
Speaker 1: have a terrible reputation. Do you still have a lot
Speaker 1: of fooling around to do? And he said, such an
Speaker 1: honest question deserves an out to answer. He says, I'm
Speaker 1: afraid I do, and I said, you kill me. I
Speaker 1: said goodbye to him and I was saw him for
Speaker 1: eight years. By the late fifties, Fernando was eager to
Speaker 1: leave the onscreen part of the role behind. I'm very
Speaker 1: happy to say that I'm walking away from one role
Speaker 1: that I seem to be stuck with in quite another
Speaker 1: of my pictures in Hollywood. That's what I called the
Speaker 1: Latin lover type of a role, which is the one
Speaker 1: dimensional you know only it calls for a starting one hand,
Speaker 1: a blonde dame on the other, and the horse waiting
Speaker 1: outside that's all black hair and long pink. And indeed,
Speaker 1: by the end of the decade, the Latin lover had
Speaker 1: largely banished from the big screen. But, much to the
Speaker 1: dismay of Lamas, this didn't lead to better opportunities. As
Speaker 1: he later explained to Johnny Carson, I'm in a nine sixty.
Speaker 1: No foreign man is allowed to play a leading role.
Speaker 1: Like if we had an operation of something. You didn't
Speaker 1: know that you have an operations, You're gonna may love
Speaker 1: an Marsa. Now you play the friend of the leading man,
Speaker 1: who is some dumb guy from Topeka or oh, you'll
Speaker 1: play the heavy. The Latin lover was being replaced by
Speaker 1: the Latin criminal, all too often the urban gang member
Speaker 1: by Ella Nasa collection time. Okay, girl, come on come,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get the money ready. This man needs some
Speaker 1: great Former movie star Latin lovers had to turn elsewhere
Speaker 1: for work. By your guests, I am Mr Rourke, your host.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Island. Ricardo Montauban became the star of
Speaker 1: TV's Fantasy Island, where I would watch him every Saturday night. Smiles,
Speaker 1: everyone smiles. No longer cast as a romantic lead, he
Speaker 1: was also during commercial breaks romancing car seats, venue small prison.
Speaker 1: Here is the warm, thickly cushion contour seats available even
Speaker 1: in Fine Corinthiander. By the way, fine Corinthian leather is
Speaker 1: a marketing term, not any actual type of leather. As
Speaker 1: for Fernando Lamas, he turned to directing for television. He
Speaker 1: directed Lorenzo in several episodes of Falcon Crest. Fernando's name
Speaker 1: and fame slowly faded until Pop Culture twice turned the
Speaker 1: spotlight back on him. It's time now for Fernando's bideaway.
Speaker 1: Find that yours, my friends, I'm so happy to be
Speaker 1: at tonight. In the recurring Saturday Night Live segment Fernando's Hideaway,
Speaker 1: Billy Crystal parodied the Elder Lamas inspired says Lorenzo buy
Speaker 1: an appearance Fernando had made on The Tonight Show, and
Speaker 1: Billy was watching Dad the way he was on Johnny Carson,
Speaker 1: and Dad came in and appeared, and he had a
Speaker 1: little bit of a cult. Johnny said, So for I
Speaker 1: understand you're a little under the weather tonight, because yes,
Speaker 1: Johnny and Lutheran to the weather, not not, you know,
Speaker 1: feeling to moral us. But it's always better to look
Speaker 1: good than to feel good, right, I would rather look
Speaker 1: good than to feel good. You know what I'm saying
Speaker 1: to your dolling mama. You look thank you, but you
Speaker 1: look pretty good yourself. I'm rushing inside my temperature. Dad
Speaker 1: loved it because Billy was introducing my father to an
Speaker 1: audience of people that didn't know who he was. By
Speaker 1: the way, there really was a Fernando's Hie to way
Speaker 1: in that appearance on Person to Person. Back in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty seven, Fernando led Edward R. Murrow on a tour
Speaker 1: through his Manhattan town house and to his man cave.
Speaker 1: This is the room where you got away from it all?
Speaker 1: Is that? That's why? Definitely, you know, I think a
Speaker 1: man who hasn't what has to be along with himself.
Speaker 1: But what's the sign just beside you? There is the
Speaker 1: sign here says exactly Fernando's high The way is the
Speaker 1: picture of a bullfight? Is it? Fernando Lamas died in
Speaker 1: but another tribute of a sort came posthumously in a
Speaker 1: popular beer campaign in two thousand six. In the First Life,
Speaker 1: he was himself. If opportunity knocks and he's not home,
Speaker 1: opportunity wings. He gave his father the talk. He is
Speaker 1: the most Interesting man in the world. Character actor Jonathan Goldsmith,
Speaker 1: a good friend to Fernando's audition and for a commercial
Speaker 1: for Doseki Spear and the character that Dosekis was looking
Speaker 1: for was some sort of Latin lover type. Goldsmith, a
Speaker 1: self described Jewish guy from the Bronx, summoned the spirit
Speaker 1: of his beloved lost friend and the most Interesting Man
Speaker 1: in the World was basically from Jonathan's memory of the
Speaker 1: times that he spent with Dad. Running in place will
Speaker 1: never get you the same results as running from Claya
Speaker 1: Fernando Lamas was never entirely able to shake the Latin
Speaker 1: lover label. His New York Times obituary David October two
Speaker 1: starts off, Fernando Lamas, the silver haired star of numerous
Speaker 1: Latin Lover movies, died today of cancer. He was sixty
Speaker 1: seven years old. There when you realize that Valentino he
Speaker 1: invented the leading men, and he came on and he
Speaker 1: invented the thing, and he dressed himself funny, and Buddy
Speaker 1: caught on, and then there were a lot of funnis
Speaker 1: that followed. We've left the Latin lover behind us, and
Speaker 1: as with most all stereotypes, that's for the best. But
Speaker 1: let's also acknowledge that the Latin Lover allowed foreigners to
Speaker 1: be leading men for the first time. And while it's
Speaker 1: rare to see someone marketed as a Latin lover today,
Speaker 1: some of his better aspects have been absorbed, assimilated into
Speaker 1: today's leading men of all ethnicities. Even the most macho
Speaker 1: man mus now also have some emotional awareness and vulnerability. Yes,
Speaker 1: behind each posturing, chest thumping bro in Magic Mike, there's
Speaker 1: a surprisingly sensitive guy who just wants to be loved.
Speaker 1: I'm not my lifestyle. I'm not a in my magic
Speaker 1: in my magic mike right now talking to you. I'm
Speaker 1: not my goddamn job. And that's not who, That's not
Speaker 1: what I That's not what I do. That's I mean,
Speaker 1: this is what I do, but it's not who I am.
Speaker 1: Sure every once in a while somebody bemoans the loss
Speaker 1: of the stoic leading man. What have that happened to?
Speaker 1: Gary Cooper? The strong, silent type that was an American.
Speaker 1: He wasn't in touch with his feelings. He just did
Speaker 1: what he had to do to what they didn't know.
Speaker 1: Once they got Gary Cooper in touch with his feelings
Speaker 1: that they wouldn't be able to shut him up. But
Speaker 1: there's no going back day, not form, nothing. But you
Speaker 1: get a little confused here. That was the movies there's
Speaker 1: on you have. I certainly hope you enjoyed this mobituary.
Speaker 1: May I ask you to please rate and review the podcast.
Speaker 1: You can also follow mobituaries on Facebook and Instagram, and
Speaker 1: you can follow me on Twitter at Morocca. Listen to
Speaker 1: mobituaries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts,
Speaker 1: and might I suggest mobituaries great lives worth reliving the
Speaker 1: New York Times best selling book, now available in paperback
Speaker 1: and audio book. It includes plenty of stories not in
Speaker 1: the podcast, and I gotta say it's kind of a
Speaker 1: perfect stocking stuffer. This episode of Mobituaries was produced by
Speaker 1: Francisco Robina and Aaron Shrank. Our team of producers also
Speaker 1: includes Wilco, Martina Scaceto, and me Morocca. It was edited
Speaker 1: by Moral Walls and engineered by Josh Hahn, with fact
Speaker 1: checking by Naomi Barr. Our production company is Neon hom Media.
Speaker 1: Our archival producer is Jamie Benson. Our theme music is
Speaker 1: written by Daniel Hart. Indispensable support from Craig Swaggler, Dustin Gervais,
Speaker 1: Alan Peg, Reggie Basil and everyone at CBS News Radio.
Speaker 1: Special thanks to Andre Suarez, Mattia, Santonio Bombal Lauda, Isabel
Speaker 1: Cerna and Alberto Robina, the Unsinkable Aaron Shrink as our
Speaker 1: senior producer. Executive producers for Mobituaries include Steve Raises and Morocca.
Speaker 1: The series is created by Yours Truly and as always,
Speaker 1: undying gratitude to Rand Morrison and John carp for helping
Speaker 1: breathe life into Mobituaries. Before we go Hollywood also had
Speaker 1: its female Latin lovers. The pioneering and stunning Dolores del
Speaker 1: Rio was Ramon Navarro's second cousin. Del Rio was often
Speaker 1: called the female Rudolf Valentino. She and her contemporary Lupe
Speaker 1: Vells paved the way for other Latin actresses like Carmen
Speaker 1: Miranda and Maria Montez. The storied history of those Latin
Speaker 1: lovers is its own tail, deserving its own future mobituary.
Speaker 1: I think you like that very much. You like that too,
Speaker 1: of course I'm willing to everyone else. Is you want
Speaker 1: to know what I think. I can't tell what I said.
Speaker 1: It's okay, stan Leando, do you make it sounds nothing?
Speaker 1: You don't know not to call the battles? Yeah, you're not.
Speaker 1: Wish I couldn't you know saying that in English